January 11, 2018 • 52 mins
Clay discusses the ratings decline during Wild Card Weekend, has a debate with jason Martin about it, talks to Alex Marvez about the upcoming Divisional Round, Animal Thunderdome, and more!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the best of I'll kick the coverage with
Clay Travis on Fox Sports Radio. We're a couple of
days away now from the Divisional Round kickoff in the
n f L, and we're gonna start to break down
those games in a substantial fashion for you, giving you
a roadmap for where we're headed here on Thursday. I
(00:22):
first of all, hope you're having a fantastic Thursday morning
out there getting ready for the weekend. In our two,
we'll talk with my guy Alex Marvez and kind of
really get you rolling in terms of what he sees
in these four Divisional Round playoff games. In our three,
we will talk with my guy Todd Ferman out in
(00:43):
Vegas up early in the desert and discuss how you
can make some money betting on these four games. Um
Our one, I wanted to really kind of focus on
something that I find to be utterly intriguing and especially
off the jump. That is is the NFL playoff ratings
in the wild card absolutely tanked. We talked a little
(01:07):
bit about this on Tuesday, I believe it was after
the NFL after the college football playoff game, but I
went back in and looked at this in the context
of the college football playoff rankings, which came out on
Tuesday kind of late in the morning, and we kind
of started to get a picture for how many people
(01:29):
watched Alabama Georgia. And so I want to hit on
these two things and get your ideas on these, bringing
the crew and everybody else, but I want to start
with this. We talked a bit about the fact that
the NFL ratings were down nine point seven percent overall
in twenty seventeen. That is the course of the entire year,
(01:52):
the ratings dropped nearly ten percent, and that's after they
were down eight percent the year before. So in the
past two years years, the NFL ratings have dropped a
substantial amount eight percent in sixteen, nearly ten percent in ten.
Even more alarmingly for the NFL and its television partners.
(02:14):
And I wrote an article and came on here and
talked with you guys about the fact that the NFL
television partners, we're gonna lose approximately five hundred million dollars
that they had budgeted that they were going to make
across all of the different networks, whether it's NBC, CBS, Fox,
or Disney Slash, ABC, ESPN, that's big money that they
(02:38):
budgeted they were going to make that they're actually gonna
end up not making now off of the NFL. So
this is a big hit to the overall business community,
the collapse of the NFL. And at the same time,
usually the playoffs helped to revive things because there are
(02:58):
only four games in the wild car Card, and this
is pretty scary, I think for the NFL. The Wild
Card ratings for all four games that aired last weekend too,
on Saturday, two on Sunday fell and everybody out there
(03:18):
who's been making an argument on behalf of the NFL
has been like, well, it's a challenging environment. There's cord
cutting going on. Netflix continues to get more powerful, popular Hulu,
all these other different entertainment options exist that didn't exist,
and I'm like, really, in the last year it suddenly
has changed overnight. Those are the arguments the NFL made.
(03:41):
But then something interesting happened. On Monday night. We had
Alabama playing Georgia and a lot of you out there,
we're bitter and you're angry, and you hopped on social
media for a week leading up to this game. After
Georgia beat Oklahoma and after Alabama beat Clemson, and you said,
I'm not gonna watch I'm not gonna watch two SEC
(04:05):
teams play. This is a rig job. I'm gonna sit out.
The ratings are gonna be awful. Nobody's gonna care about
Alabama versus Georgia. You've got two Southern teams playing. And
by the way, you had four regional teams playing in
the playoff to begin with, because Oklahoma effectively a Southern team. Really,
(04:25):
I mean Oklahoma and Texas, and I think Oklahoma and
Texas and Clemson and Florida State are effectively shadow SEC teams.
What I mean by that is their programs are every
bit the equivalent of the Big SEC schools. They just
happened to play in the Big twelve and they happen
(04:45):
to play in the a SEC. If you were being
a hundred percent consistent in terms of the cultural fit,
Oklahoma and Texas and Clemson and Florida State would all
be in the SEC because they care their fay end
care about college football just like the SEC fans care
(05:06):
about college football. So it would make total sense to
have all those schools in the same conference. But it
was effectively a Southern uh kind of Playoff to begin with,
even though we had two SEC teams win and something
interesting happened. The ratings were up substantially on ESPN Cable
(05:29):
for the college Football playoff games, and then they were
up substantially for the College Football title game. Georgia and
Alabama ended up being the second most watched game in
the history of cable. Most watch game in the history
of cable was the first year the College Football Playoff,
(05:49):
when Ohio State played Oregon. Second most watched game is
Georgia against Alabama. So it got me thinking, wait a minute,
when you look at these to contradictory data sets, If
everybody out there is arguing, oh, the reason why the
NFL ratings are down is because chord cutting is getting
more difficult because of Netflix, because of Hulu, wait a minute,
(06:15):
why wouldn't that impact the College Football Playoff even more?
Considering that the College Football Playoff is on cable, so
every year fewer people have cable because their chord cutting.
In fact, ESPN is losing around ten thousand people a
day in many months that are leaving cable never to return.
(06:40):
Wouldn't ESPN be more impacted by chord cutting and Hulu
and Netflix and people watching out of the house and
all these things. Wouldn't that be more impactful in terms
of the audience. Yet, the college football playoff ratings were
up pretty substantially, nearly ten per cent more people watched
(07:02):
Alabama Georgia than watched Alabama Clemson. And Alabama Clemson. By
the way, it was a really good football game, right,
I mean, it went down to the wire and Clemson
scored on the final play of the game effectively to win,
and obviously Alabama Georgia went to overtime. But why is
college football up nearly ten while the NFL playoffs are
(07:27):
down nearly I think the answer that so many people
have been refusing to acknowledge is that the NFL brand
has been substantially tarnished by the decisions involved in the protest.
And I don't know why. I'm one of the few
people who's willing to talk about this. It's like everybody
(07:50):
else is coming up with other excuses for why the
ratings are down, and I just think it's staring us
right in the face. The NFL ratings, after surging for years,
dropped eight percent last year, and then they dropped almost
ten percent this year, and then college football. The playoff
(08:11):
is up substantially in ratings on ESPN, and the college
football title game is up nearly ten percent, while the
NFL playoff ratings are down nearly What other reason can
you come up with other than the protest as a
(08:31):
reason why this is happening now? I don't know exactly
what's going to happen in the divisional round of the playoffs.
I don't know what the ratings are gonna look like.
You got the Titans traveling to New England, you got
the Jags traveling to Pittsburgh, Saints going to the Vikings,
and the Falcons going to the Eagles. Are those matchups
(08:51):
gonna do better than last year's divisional round? Not? Based
on what we've seen so far this year? Do you
guys have good theories for why this could be happening
other than the protest? And also got me thinking the NBA,
whose ratings continue to go up, needs to go to
(09:13):
David Stern and give him a hundred million dollar bonus
for putting in place a rule that everybody stands for
the national anthem in the NBA, because I think if
they didn't have that rule and players were protesting, it
would have cost the league billions of dollars over the
(09:34):
past couple of years over the way that players would
have acted during the national anthem. As is, nobody in
the NBA has ever done anything other than stand for
the national anthem, and it hasn't ever been a story
at all. Meanwhile, in the NFL, this thing, ever since
Colin Kaepernick started, has been a disaster. Now. I think
(09:56):
football is under siege to a large extent for a
variety of issues, concussions, health of players, in general, officiating.
There are lots of reasons why the NFL I think
could be facing real difficulty. Maybe potentially two years ago
(10:17):
when the NFL ratings peaked, they just reached the absolute
apex and there's nowhere for them to go in terms
of getting bigger because the audiences have gotten so substantial.
But when I hear people say, well, this is just
the environment that we're facing. Network television ratings are down
in general, I come back and look at that discrepancy.
(10:41):
Why is college football and their playoff and their title
game surging? Why was the Alabama Georgia game, even if
it was too SEC teams, I think it's fair to
say that was not the best matchup that ESPN could
have ever gotten right. One answer as well, maybe the
matchup was just so great. No Alabama Georgia. A lot
(11:02):
of people were saying, I'm not gonna watch now. I
think those people were liars, and there was a great
deal of interest in Alabama and Georgia. And certainly your
average person out there doesn't think. I think Alabama Georgia
is a regional game, but Alabama Clemson was a national game.
I don't think that was the case. But it is
an interesting juxtaposition, an interesting dichotomy that college football ratings
(11:28):
surged this year while the NFL ratings are collapsing. And
when I look at it and I see the difference,
I say, Okay, look, I've made the argument for a
while college football is more entertaining than the NFL. That's
my personal opinion. But is there any other difference you
guys can see between why college football would have nearly
(11:50):
set an all time record this year and why the
NFL would be taking a thirteen percent drop in NFL
Division Play offer ratings following nearly a ten percent drop
year long, following an eight percent drop last year. They've
officially hit the panic button in the NFL, the league
(12:10):
television partners at NBCCBS, Fox and ABC, Slash, ESPN. They
are panicked. They are desperately trying to figure out what's
going on. I think the NFL needs to almost come
out and apologize to all of its fans for the
past two years of politicization. When it comes to the
(12:32):
way that politics and the NFL have become intertwined. I'm
not even kidding about that. I think that Roger Goodell
and the NFL owners and the NFL players need to
issue an official apology. And I talked about this after
Thanksgiving for those of you who missed it. I came
on after Thanksgiving and I said, guys, we've been taking
calls on this for a while. We've been at the
(12:53):
forefront of the NFL losing its base because people said,
you know what, I just I don't want to put
on the NFL and have to deal with the fact
that players are complaining about things in America. I just
don't want to do it. The NFL is my escape
from reality. I want to watch football for three hours
and I don't want to focus on whether guys are
(13:15):
upset about the national anthem or the president, or politics
or anything other than what are you gonna do on
third night? What defense you're gonna apply. I want that
to be my escape from the real world. And I
think the NFL blew it by getting political, and I
think the media that covers the NFL blew it by
getting political. And I think that this really got brought
(13:39):
home to me personally when I was down in Florida
for Thanksgiving and my father in law, who is uh,
grew up in Detroit. My wife is from Michigan, went
to the University of Michigan. Her family all lives in Michigan.
When we went to his house down in Florida to
for for Thanksgiving, I'm sitting around and it's been a
(14:03):
tradition in our family on Thanksgiving, like your family, to
watch the NFL, So we do want Thanksgiving put it on.
And it's been a tradition in my wife's family too.
In fact, we have gone to Detroit Lion games on
Thanksgiving before with him, and I noticed that the game
wasn't on, and I was curious. I don't remember who
(14:23):
the Lions are playing, um, but I said, hey, can
we put the Lions game on? Why is it? Why
is it not on? And he said, I've just been
so fed up with the NFL and politics and protesting
this year that I haven't watched the Lions at all.
I haven't put on the NFL this year. This guy
who's been watching the Lions for his entire life, and
(14:44):
certainly a guy who's been watching the Lions on Thanksgiving
for his entire life. And he's not a reactionary. He's
not some crazy political zealot. He's a very middle of
the road guy. He's an engineer. And he just said,
I decided I don't have time for it. I it's
not enjoyable for me to put on the NFL and
watch them talk about players protesting and politics and everything else.
(15:06):
I'll just spend my time elsewhere. And he hadn't watched
the Lions the entire year. That's directly in my family,
someone who made the decision that has watched the NFL
for generations on Thanksgiving and all season long, and I
had to tell him to put the teleput the game
on so I could watch it. I think that's becoming
(15:26):
a really big issue for the NFL. And I don't
know how the NFL resolves it. But when I see
the NFL down in its playoffs the same time that
college football is up ten percent. It's not that people
have too many options and are not interested in sports
in the same way that they were before. It's that
the NFL hasn't lost a substantial portion of its viewership
(15:51):
by alienating its fans. What can it do to bring
them back? Be sure to catch live editions about kick
the Coverage with Clay Travis weekdays at six am Eastern
three am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I
Heart Radio app. NFL Divisional Round Playoffs Sension Closer and Closer.
Two days from now, we get the first game kicking off.
We're gonna talk with Alex Marvez here in the next
(16:12):
segment about all these games. But we started off the
show and we continue to to unpack here what I
think is a big story, and it is the NFL
Wild Card weekend games being down on average, all four
of them being down double digits. So it's not as
if one game just dragged the entire crew down. All
(16:34):
four of the wild card game ratings were down double digits.
And uh, we have the college football playoff, which happened
on New Year's Day as well as on this past Monday.
We were obviously down in the Atlanta for that game,
and the ratings for that game surged over last year.
(16:55):
So the question that I'm asking is, it's one thing
if people just want to say, oh, the reason and
why the NFL ratings are down is because television viewing
habits have changed. It's because television and in general is
under siege because people have a lot more options. They're
watching on demand, they're watching Netflix, they're watching Hulu, they're
watching television in different ways, they're watching on their phones,
(17:18):
all these different explanations, But my question is pretty straightforward.
It's okay if those same situations occur for both college
and the NFL, why would college be up double digits
and the NFL be down double digits? Particularly when the
college games are on cable. So in theory, it's harder
(17:40):
to watch games on cable than it is basic network television.
So if cord cutting was gonna be a thing and
people were watching television less, wouldn't ESPN have been more
impacted by that than the NFL was? And look, a
lot of the wild card games were pretty dag gone competitive.
It's not like we got a ton of forty two
to three games in the wild card weekend that just passed.
(18:03):
Titan Chiefs went down to the wire, Panther Saints down
to the wire. Uh, certainly it wasn't a great game,
but Bill's Jacks went down to the absolute wire, and
even the Rams and the Falcons game was pretty entertaining
down the stretch. It wasn't like it was a blowout game.
It was very competitive as well. So you got four
(18:25):
pretty competitive games in the NFL wild Card maybe maybe
a little bit more understandable. And you had again a
lot of big markets. Atlanta against l A that's a
pretty good game. Uh, two big time quarterbacks in Cam
Newton and in Drew Brees going head to head. Uh,
you got Bills in the playoffs for the first time
in twenty years. Basically, a lot of pretty good, sexy storylines,
(18:47):
lots of teams that hadn't been in the playoffs for
a while that would have produced a lot of interest
in those markets in Jacksonville and in Nashville. So I
just I don't buy into the fact that everything else
is working flawlessly for the NFL and somehow this is
just a larger scale issues they're facing. And what I
have been saying I'm one of the few people who's
(19:08):
been on this guy's because everybody else out there in
television has been making excuses. They've been saying, oh, well,
it was the election, Oh well it was the cord
cutting and the challenges that television is facing in general.
And what I've been telling you, guys is what I've
been hearing from people in the middle part of the country.
Not people in New York and l A so much,
(19:29):
but the middle part of the country, the base, the
backbone of football fandom, the middle part of the country.
A lot of people saying, I'm just not gonna watch
the local I mean, I watched maybe my local team,
but I'm not gonna watch the national games. And so
everything is down substantially. And this comes on the heels
of every game being down substantially. I pulled this from
(19:54):
the New York Times, sorry, the Wall Street Journal recently,
and I looked at this and I said, in this
ain't good for the NFL, and I sent out this link.
This was in the Wall Street Journal, I believe, Friday edition. UM,
Monday Night Football down six percent for the year. Fox
Sunday Afternoons down nine percent. NBC. This is regular season
(20:16):
down eleven percent, CBS down eleven percent, and Thursday Night
Football down twelve percent. Every NFL game and sequence was
down substantially. And I wrote about this on in my
website out Kick. But it was gonna miss revenue. The
expectation was NFL television partners, We're gonna miss revenue by
(20:38):
five hundred million bucks. The NFL with NBC, CBS, Fox
and Disney slash ESPN, slash ABC, those networks were gonna
miss their budget by over five hundred million dollars because
people were not watching. So I would love to know it.
What would you guys do to s all of this
(21:00):
issue the NFL? If you were a business, let's just
take it away from the NFL. If you were a business,
a lot of you driving into work this morning. If
you work at a for profit business in the NFL,
teams are for profit businesses and your revenue was down
in the past two years, it would be in all
hands on deck meeting and everybody would be sitting around
(21:22):
the table and you'd be like, what's happened with our product?
If you sold chocolate bars and your chocolate bar sales
had just declined in the past two years, you would
be would be an oh crap moment. It doesn't matter
what you sell. If you were a bank and your
deposits had declined in two years, you'd be like, oh,
(21:43):
what are we doing wrong? Why are we losing everybody?
If you're a retail store and your revenue dropped over
the past two years, no, no no matter what you sell,
you'd be like, we gotta change something. We gotta figure
out what's going on here. We're gonna go out of business.
What would you do? Does Roger Goodell in this offseason say,
we need to make a drastic change, We need to apologize,
(22:06):
We need to go back and change the rule and
make everybody stand for the national anthem? Does he hope
this just vanishes and just disappears. I don't. I don't
know what the easy answer is. I do know this.
If you're down in two years, that's trouble. If they
came to me on on my show and they said, hey,
(22:27):
since we hired you, Clay Travis, your ratings have dropped
in this time slot, you know what would happen. I
would get fired. That's zero doubt. They would come to
me and they would say, hey, I don't know what
you're doing but it ain't Workin in the two years
that you've been on the air, your ratings have dropped.
Less people are listening to you than when you started.
(22:48):
I'd get fired right here, and I'm not lying my
contracts up at the end of June. They'd be like,
We're gonna go find somebody else, and I'd be like,
I totally understand it. My job is to bring people
in and instead I've run people off. Something I'm doing
not working. By the way, we're surging in ratings, thank
you for that. But if I understand that, I'm in
the ratings business just like the NFL is, I'm in
(23:10):
the business of making as many people listen for as
long as possible, just like the NFL's in the business
of making as many people watch football for as long
as possible. That's how they make their money. And ultimately,
I don't know if the players understand that, but that's
how the players get paid. Ultimately, when they're protesting and
knocking ratings down twent for their league, they're taking money
(23:31):
out of their own pocket. I don't know. The problem
I think in general is lots of people who are
employees don't understand how they get their paychecks. I always
say this, if you want to make more money, figure
out how you get paid, because if you can make
your boss more money, he's gonna probably pay you more money.
(23:53):
A lot of people just want to be employees. They
don't want to focus on what they need to do
to make more money. They want to just focus on
the fact that their paycheck continues to come in. They
don't want to think about what can I do better
to make my company more successful. They don't really take
that next step. And I think a lot of NFL
players did that too. I think they weren't really thinking
(24:16):
about who pays their salary. If you are an NFL player,
guess where your money comes from. Fans, period, and so
if the fans aren't happy, that's on you. Ultimately, your
job is to make the fans happy. You're an entertainer,
and if you're not entertaining and keeping them happy, then
(24:37):
it's on you. I used as an example, uh, the
Dixie Chicks. Remember when the Dixie Chicks went out there
and insulted George W. Bush while they were overseas in England,
and then all of a sudden, they were like, holy crap,
our fan base revolted on us. It wasn't just what
the Dixie Chicks said, because if Madonna said it, nobody
(24:59):
would have cared. If Jay Z said that, nobody would
have cared. It was that when the Dixie Chicks insulted
George W. Bush, they were insulting their very base, the
people who made their paid their salaries, bought their music,
went to their concerts. You can say they had First
Amendment rights, all that is true, but if you alienate
(25:19):
your base, you ain't gonna be around very long in
the entertainment industry. And what the Dixie Chicks did, I
think is similar to what the NFL players have done.
They've alienated their base, all the people in the middle
part of the country who love football, everybody in Texas.
That's why Jerry Jones, I think, was so aggressive. Jerry
(25:40):
Jones in Texas he sees what's happening to the Cowboys.
The Cowboys are as close to Americana as you can get.
It's like mom apple Pie, Dallas Cowboys. Jerry Jones a
dumb He didn't become a multi billionaire because he's bad
at figuring out what people want. He looked around, he said,
my god, this protest is alienating a huge portion of
(26:02):
the Dallas Cowboy fan base. My mom just texted me, said,
your uncle refuses to watch the NFL other than the
local team, And I think that's what a lot of
people have done. You'll like your local team enough that
you'll watch them, but you're not gonna watch Monday night football.
You're not gonna watch Thursday night football. You may not
watch the NFL playoffs if it doesn't involve your local team.
(26:25):
I think that starts to explain it. That's been my
theory for a while that the last thing fans would
give up would be their local team. The first thing
they would give up would be the national games. Jason Martin,
if I if you if Roger Goodell came to you
and he said, this is a crisis, we're down. What
do we need to do? What would you tell him?
Have the players stay in the locker room until after
(26:47):
the national anthem? That's football? Does? I think I don't
making people stand? To me, I guess I just disagree.
Like personally, I want people to stand for the national anthem,
but I don't like the idea of forcing people to
do it. I think staying in the locker room I
don't help. I just I can't. I don't. They force
them to stand up in the NBA and it's not
(27:07):
a story at all. I think that's wrong too. It's
not a story. I mean people, I just it's really
weird to me. It's a slippery slope. I don't like
mandating things like that. I think if you just have
them stay in the locker room, I think that's a bad. Yeah,
but that's that first of all, they'll know now you
for something you might not agree with. People do that
(27:29):
all the time. Jason Martin, you have to wear a
uniform that doesn't have like the totally just I just
don't agree with you. I am totally patriotic and believe
that you should stand for the national anthem. I also
believe that we're in a country that actually believes in
the idea that if you don't necessarily want to stand
for the national anthem, you shouldn't necessarily have to personally,
(27:52):
you should as part of the job. You cannot do
the job like this. This is crazy to me. Like
if you are a FedEx driver and you're a huge
Donald Trump's reporter and you want to wear a makeup
Erica Great hat again instead of your FedEx normal hat
or whatever you wear. You can't do that as part
of the job. If you are a McDonald's cashier and
you're selling Big Max all day, you can't wear a
(28:14):
Hillary Clinton button on your McDonald's uniform. Do you know why?
Because when you agree to be an employee, you give
up some of your rights. They pay you to give
up things that, but they're not paying you to stand
for the national anthem at FedEx. They're not paying you
to stand for the national anthem at Walmart. That's not
part of your gig. It could sign a contract, what's
(28:35):
part of your contract and said, by the way, you
also have to stand for the national anthem where you
can't play in the end. I think that's insane. Though
why I just think it's insane. If it just keep
them in the locker room, I don't care. Like, if
I want to believe that everybody would stand for the
national anthem, it's if it's the fact that bus there
are college players that did that would not stand for
the national anthem. If they were forced to be out there,
they've him to play. Like, I don't understand how this
(28:58):
is remotely controversial. Every single person who sells their labor,
is giving up some of their freedom in exchange for money.
That's like par for the course. You are choosing. Every
single person who's driving into work today right now is
choosing to sell their time in exchange for labor. And
as part of selling their time for labor, they are
(29:21):
giving up the right to do other things like That's
literally the very basis of being paid for a job.
The reason why I'm up right now talking on the
radio is not because I want to do it for free.
The reason why you're working as a producer is not
because you want to do it for free, or Danny
g or or justin doing to do it for free.
If our ratings were down and I found out that
(29:42):
our ratings would go up again if we played the
national anthem before this show started, I would make every
single employee that works on this show stand up for
the national anthem, and we put the damn thing on
Periscope and Facebook. If it were gonna make a difference,
give you garant, damn tee it, and I would fire
anybody who wouldn't do it. And I don't think that's
a bad move. If I told you right now, you're
(30:04):
your salary is going to be increased by if we've
played the national anthem to start this show and you
had to stand up, and we had to put it
on Periscope and Facebook, and I guarantee you that our
ratings were gonna be up, you wouldn't do it. Well,
you're asking the wrong person in my case, because I
would have stood anyway, because I believe in a national anthem.
(30:25):
I'm just suggesting. I'm just suggesting that if that, if
there's nobody out there actively standing up in front of me,
I don't care about Okay, that's that that doesn't matter.
That clearly doesn't matter to you, but it's mattering for
the viewership. That's fine to me. That that you should
just take them and just be like, all right, well
you're still gonna do this because it's a business. It's like,
(30:45):
do you care about the patriotism or do you do
you just simply care about the money? Oh? I care.
I care about the money. But but it's the equivalent
of interviewing a black candidate for the Oakland Raiders. It's
like Team Martin and not having any chance for that
guy to get the job. It's the same gig. You
don't even care if they're standing. You just want to
make sure that people are watching the games the room.
(31:06):
Who cares. I'm a business I'm a same thing. Don't
invite them to the White House. Don't invite anybody to
the White House because I don't care what their political stances.
If they want to do that on their own, harm
their brands. Jason, you gotta take a step back. You're
answering this for yourself. You're not thinking myself. You're not
thinking like a business owner. Alright, so it's a business owner.
(31:27):
I'm gonna force people to go against Look the the
guy that called up, the army lieutenant that called up
and said that it made him sick that that these
people would think that they have the right to kneel
while people are dying on the battlefield. Unfortunately, they're dying
on the battlefield for the right for people to Again,
it's not a bad it is a bad argument. The
argument here is your business is down. I come to
(31:49):
you and say how do you solve it? You say,
don't come out for the national anthem. That's not going
to solve this issue. It's actually gonna make it worse. Now,
it's atoms a sham. If you don't want to do
stand up if you want to be employed as an
NFL player. To me, that's not very much to ask
that you might not agree with, might not like, might
(32:11):
not might have a problem with people think you don't
want If you have such an issue with the anthem
and pro and and the fact that you can't protest
in your uniform while you're at work, then you cannot
be employed. I don't understand why that's a difficult situation.
It's the exact same to me as somebody who is
in a uniform. Like, when you are in a uniform
(32:32):
representing a company, you don't have the right to protest
and share your political opinions in that uniform. I don't
understand how this is not something that everybody on earth
doesn't understand. At the most basic level, if you are
in a uniform representing a company, you don't have the
right to share your political beliefs with everyone that comes
(32:53):
into contact with you that day. Easy example, if you
are a Walmart cashier, you don't have the right to
cash somebody out at Walmart and say abortion is murder.
If that happened, every single person listening to us right
now would be like, yeah, Walmart should fire that employee.
If you showed up as a FedEx or a UPS
(33:14):
driver and when you delivered a package for Christmas this year,
you said, God blessed Donald Trump, Thank God he's making
America great again everybody, and you wore a MAGA hat
make America Great Again hat. Every single person would say, Yeah,
you don't deserve the right in your uniform to be
advocating on behalf of Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton or
(33:35):
any other political agenda. I don't understand how it's controversial
for an NFL team to say the exact same thing
to a player. If you want to advocate outside of
the time when you're wearing my uniform, then you have
the right to do it. Like on My Ship, No
Stop on my show, if Danny G came on and
(33:58):
he was like, Hey, today, I want to talk talk
about how much I love anime, I'd be like, we're
probably not gonna do that. And if when I went
to Danny G and I was like, hey, what do
you think about the Raiders and the decision to hire
John Gruden, he was like, Oh, I like the decision
to hire John Gruden, but let me talk to you
about this new anime film that I watched and how
much I love it, and if he consistently did it,
(34:19):
I'd be like, this dude can't be on the show
because he's not fulfilling the obligations of the job in
a in a good way. Like if you are showing
up and advocating politically for any cause when you are
in a uniform, then that and that is hurting my business,
then I'm gonna fire you. And I don't understand how
that's remotely controversial. And if you take it outside of sports,
(34:42):
I don't think there's a single person listening to us
right now who would say, yeah, when I go to
McDonald's and I order a big Mac, I want to
hear somebody who's taking my big mac order tell me
what they think about campaign finance reform and why they
need to be supporting my candidate, or the fact that
they believe that Bernie Sanders is right when he says
(35:04):
that the corporations are getting like you don't want to
hear just like, dude, I just want a big Mac,
Like I don't want to hear from you. Why you
think that the American global system capitalistic system is broken
and the rich people are getting too rich and the
poor people are getting too poor. Like I don't care.
I just want a big mac and and by the way,
my fries too. I don't want any politics from you
(35:24):
when I'm ordering something at McDonald's. And I think it's
simply true as well that when people watch football, they're like,
I want to watch football. I don't want any politics
at all. This is my escape from real life. And
if you are doing that and you are hurting my brand,
then I'm gonna fire you. And I don't understand how
that's even remotely controversial. I think that's the very basis
(35:46):
of American capitalism. Like you serve the customer, and if
the customer is not happy, then I'm gonna find somebody
who can make the customer happy. Like I just I
don't understand. Like so you say, oh, it's a sham.
If somebody's signs stands up, I don't really care about
what their motivation is or what whether they agree with it.
I care that they are they're standing, and that they're
(36:09):
not hurting my business. So your so you can have
a political opinion say that they need to stand up,
but they don't have the right to then have the
political opinion on their own side because political locker room,
so that we don't ever see their opinion one way
or the other, and they're not forced to take I
don't keep standing up for the national anthem is a
strong political opinion. And moreover, I don't think that it's No,
(36:33):
it's not true at all. That's not true at all.
Standing for the national anthem is a basic sign of respect.
It doesn't mean that you're standing for the national anthem
and like, oh, I'm a Democrat and I'm standing for
the national anthem, and oh, I'm a Republican. Standing for
the national anthem doesn't tell me anything at all about
your internal politics. Moreover, it doesn't in any way also
(36:55):
mean that you don't have the right any time else,
any time other than the three hours a day when
you are in your uniform being paid by my team
to play a game. You can have any opinion that
you want. You can't even have any opinion that you
want in a press conference right after the game. You
can even have any opinion that you want in a
(37:15):
press conference after practice. But when you are in my
uniform on the field, being paid to play football, you
do what I asked, Just like the NBA, like, the
NBA is so smart, they should go give a hundred
million dollars extra to David Stern and they should say,
God bless you, David Stern. You were a genius. We
(37:35):
dodged completely all of this disaster because if the NBA
was kneeling, if guys were kneeling in the NBA right now,
it would cost the NBA. It would have cost the
NBA and the television partners billions of dollars over the
past couple of years. It would kill the NBA if
they were kneeling during the national anthem. And David Stern
was smart enough to know this. He put in place
(37:56):
a rule that everybody had to stand for the national anthem.
You know what hasn't happen, and nobody's even out there saying, hey,
how come the NBA makes its players stand for the
national anthem? How come the NBA has to do this?
How come the NBA players have to fake patriotism? How
can they have to sham patriotism? Nobody's even asking because
it's a basic rule that was already in place, and
nobody in the NBA has stood up to it. And
(38:18):
in the NFL they didn't have the rule and as
a result, their business is tanking down twenty in the
past two years. That is pushed the panic button. We
are in serious trouble. That ain't good, that is problematic,
and how do you fix it? I don't know. Be
sure to catch live editions of I Would Kick the
coverage with Clay Travis weekdays at six am Eastern three
(38:40):
am Pacific. Alex Marvez is the panic button? Time to
be popped? Here down? Now that the NFL wild card
ratings were down, even though college football was up ten percent,
I find that juxtaposition really fascinating. Would that scare you
if you're the NFL? Yeah, I think it should. I
mean clearly because advertisers, at some point we're going to say,
what are we paying for? Should we shift our advertising
(39:01):
dollars elsewhere to a hotter product? Now, as you know,
the decay of network television as part of this as well.
But no, there there, and listen, the matchups weren't that
great in NFL games. There are some things that are
inherently wrong with the NFL right now. The officiating is
something that just comes up week after week. I think
people are getting tired of it. And let's be honest, here,
who wants to watch Tennessee, Kansas City? Who wants to
(39:22):
watch Jacksonville Buffalo? These aren't marquee games Carolina New Orleans
is really more of a their national teams that they're
not national teams, you know what I mean, They're just
not These aren't big draws. I think the real reason
to panic maybe if the big teams that play this weekend,
you know you're talking for the big markets, Philadelphia, you're
talking you know, New England, you're talking Pittsburgh, those types
(39:42):
of things, if they can't draw any traction, then I think, yeah,
I mean you will see how much the declinings because
I expected to decline as people continue to cut the
cord and maybe watch games digitally or not watch at all.
But you're right, it is it should be a concern
for the NFL which game is best if you could
only pick one to watch this weekend. You know, call
me a glutton for punishment. Titans and Patriots, I think
(40:03):
we're gonna see a better game at least early on
then what people think. Of course, Look, two things have
to happen. Number one, the Titans have to come up
with a plan to cover the tight end something that
didn't happen until Travis Kelsey n out with a concussion. Yeah,
I know, I know, it's it's it's crazy. You know
that Tom Brady six and two career record against Dick Lebo.
They've always found ways to attack his defense and be
successful at it. And of course to the if you know,
(40:24):
if the Patriots take away that one thing as we
always talk about, and of course it's going to be
Derrick Henry that they try to take away, can Marcus
Mario to make a few plays in the passing game.
But this is a healthy Tennessee team and it's just
a nasty brand of football, you know what I mean.
It's just it's just the type of thing that usually
keeps you around in games and you end up beating
up the other team pretty good. So I think the
Titans could make some hay as far as the pass
(40:45):
rush goes. And you know the key is going to
be too getting Tom Brady off his spot, make him
move around a little bit, because that Achilles Tenant is
still sore even though he's off the injury report. But
the Falcons Eagles, are you buying into the idea that
the Atlanta has now moved to a three point road favorite.
Are you buying into the idea that the Falcons are
going to go on the road knock off the Eagles. No,
I'm not, actually, and I think it's you know what,
(41:07):
it sounds too good to be true, right, you know,
Falcons on the road being the favorites. I think the
Eagles played the disrespect card pretty well. I think Nick
Foles will be better than what it is that we've
been seeing. They've had a lot of time to try
to prepare for this. Put in plays that Nick Foles
run runs well. I don't think they exposed any of
that against the Dallas Cowboys, and I think they even
took the pedal off the meadow a little bit when
it came to the Oakland Raiders. So I expect a
(41:27):
better team. I expect. You know. The interesting thing, too,
is how are the weather conditions going to affect this one?
From what I understand play And I'm not a meteorologist,
but from what I understand, there could be steady wins
eighteen miles an hour, guss up to thirty one miles
an hour that could rec havoc in the passing game,
recavoc on special teams other games, on Sunday, Jack steel
or Saints of Vikings. What jumps out to you about
(41:48):
these two games? Jack Steelers, Well, Blake Bortles, is this
the end? You know? The Jacks have a decision to
make this offseason nineteen million dollar salary for Blake bortlesen.
I get it, he's not really worth nineteen million dollars.
But that being said, do you have another option? Can
you get can you get a veteran quarterback? Can you
swing that deal? I don't think you're going in the
(42:08):
draft because this is a team that's ready to win now.
So this is a huge game for Blake Bortles. I
just think that that second time around, the Steelers aren't
gonna aren't gonna get caught there. As for New Orleans
and Minnesota, Listen, the Saints have a great offense obviously
number two in the NFL during the regular season and yards,
but this Vikings defense is special and I don't expect
case Keenom to turn back into a pumpkin. I think
the Vikings win and then taken on the road to Philly.
(42:31):
Interesting question here. Marcus Mariotta obviously gets the road playoff
win against the Kansas City Chiefs, I think that for him,
in particular, this game against the Patriots is almost entirely
a big time slingshot game in a positive direction. In
other words, that the Titans go out and they lose
thirty five to ten, I think most people are gonna say, yeah,
(42:51):
that's kind of exactly what I anticipated to see happen.
But going up against Tom Brady, going up against the Patriots,
if Mariotta came out and had a big game, how
much could this mean for him? It's huge because it
continues to build confidence. But as I reported here before, Clay,
you know, I really expect changes on this Titans coaching staff.
I'm not sure if Terry Robiski sticks around. I think
(43:12):
they'll be changes other positions on staff. I expect some
tweeks to be made to try to help Marcus Mariotta
get back on on the real big arc that he
seemed to be on his first two seasons. Let's be honest,
his Titan's offense really was stagnant, you know, I mean,
and it was stagnant in the first half of Who's
out there that they could get? I'm sorry, who's out
there that they could get? I agree with you that
(43:32):
they probably are going to have to remake the offense
that Terry Robiski could potentially be gone. What names are
you hearing? Like? What? What? Who would they even look
at potentially to remake the offense? Well, listen, I'd be
speculating here, but I have to look at who Mike
Malarkey has ties to right in the past, as Mike
Schuler that comes in works with them potentially as a
quarterbacks coach. If Mike doesn't get an offensive coordinator job,
you have Daryl Bevil. Now he's been released, you know
(43:53):
from his responsibilities at Seattle, so Seahawk's offensive coordinator. In
other words, he was fired. So you know, we will
see if Bevil is out there, and you know, again,
if it's a quarterbacks coach situation, that's one thing. I
just don't know how much Mike Malarkey wants to truly
change his offense. And listen to this, last week's win,
it kept Mike mclarkey's job. If the Titans win on Saturday,
they may decide, Listen, we'll go with his staff. Maybe
(44:15):
no changes are needed, Maybe these are the right guy
guys for the job. But for right now, Malarkey, we
know he's safe. I'm just not sure about some others
on his staff. So is it would you pick the
Titans as the I mean, the Titans are nearly a
two touchdown underdog. If I told you you had to
pick an underdog, and it sounds like you want to
go with the Eagles, So I'm not really going to
count the Eagles as an underdog. But if I told
you you had to take Titans, you had to take
(44:37):
the Jags, or you had to take the Saints. Are
you really telling me you take the Titans as the
team that's potentially is an underdog. They're most likely to
pull off the upset. I'd take it for the points.
I mean, that's what we're talking about. I'd take it
in the first half and they you know, the problem
is this, if they get into one of these games,
see and I say this, they came down from three, right,
but trying to match firepower with the Patriots, realistically, it's
(44:59):
just not going happen. I think they can stick close.
I think New England ultimately pulls away. If there's going
to be an upset, I think it would be New
Orleans against Minnesota. But gosh, this Saints team is so
beat up to. I mean, Andrew's Pete being out as
huge because his Vikings defensive line is so good. Andrews
Pete the tenth different starter out for the New Orleans
Saints this season. It really makes what they've accomplished even
more remarkable. You've lost basically half your starting lineup during
(45:22):
the regular season, and yet now you've made it to
the second round of the playoffs. They deserve a lot
of props for that. Brady in his last five game
has six touchdowns, but he also has five interceptions. Is
there a reason to worry if you're a Patriots fan
entering into the playoffs based on the way he's finished
the season? It's it's not as efficient and pretty as
it should be. But then again, he's not, you know,
dealing with a full deck of cards in a lot
(45:42):
of ways. You've got Rob Gronkowski, You've got Brandon Cooks,
and then you don't got much more than that. And
now you know, you see Rex Burkhead. He's probably not
going to be able to go. Mike Gillislee is limited.
I mean, you have Dion Lewis, James White was out
at the end of the season. I'm not making excuses.
I mean, I think that the problem that you have
with with the Patriots, and I really think the Titans
could take advantage of this, is their offensive line. I
think that they've been you know, Tom Brady has been
(46:03):
pressured more this season than he's been in the past.
You know, clearly if he has Julian Edelman, I think
it's a different story as far as two guys being
on the same page. But I think that's that's where
we're at with Brady. I don't see the beginning of
the end. It's just not as beautiful as as it's
been in the past. And that also speaks to Tom Brad.
I mean, we're talking Tom Brady. You know, maybe Carson
Wentz gets the MVP, maybe Todd Gurley, but Tom Brady,
(46:24):
We're still talking about one of the best three players
in football, if not the guy who ultimately wins the award.
So if that's the case with the panic mode on
Tom Brady, I think I'll take it. Outstanding stuff is
always so in general, if we get Steelers Patriots, and
let's say that all the favorites win and we get
Vikings Eagles, although that would obviously be an underdog winning
in the Eagles what's your Super Bowl pick at this
(46:45):
point in time with these eight teams remaining, it would
be New England in Minnesota. The Vikings defense is just special. Plus,
you know, I wanted to see that Super Bowl matchup
because the Vikings actually have the Gronk stopper. They have
Harrison Smith. This guy is ridiculous. He is He might
be the best safety in football, and he can cover
Gronkowski and that's going to force the Patriots to do
some different things. I just I feel like this might
be the year finally that curse of the Vikings. Four
(47:08):
previous Super Bowl appearances play no victories. They've always found
a way to choke it in NFC championship games or
at least lose. Whether it's it's you know, Anderson missing
that field goal, Gary Anderson. Gary Anderson missed the field
goal after being perfect all season back in the season,
whether it's a bounty gate game that took place down there.
I mean, there's been so many things that have gone
(47:28):
on through the years, Darren Nelson dropping a pass in
eighty seven, all those things. I think they're finally going
to get past it. I really think the Vikings are
gonna get there We'll talk to you next week and
we'll have it down to final four. Appreciate your time
and man splendid Clay, thank you so much. Fox Sports
Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Catch all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot
com and within the I Heart Radio apps. Ladies and gentlemen,
(47:57):
I'm just glad I was staring boys and good I
thought he thought I was like this enormous piece of chicken.
D times I had a volstrictor such my space. This
is Animal Thunderdog. Well, you know, if you happen to
be a human, there is some craziness going on. Jason Martin,
(48:21):
what you got, Clay? This credit first goes to Ben Shyvy,
who emailed me this. I think it was yesterday, may
have been two days ago. You can email me at
j Mark Clone at gmail dot com. You can hit
Clay dot Travis at gmail dot com if you want
to send us Animal Thunderdome stories. We don't see at all,
but this is a really interesting story. There's a brutal
heat wave currently happening in Australia. Temperature records being shattered
(48:41):
left and right, which often means major fires, but I'll
bet you didn't know this. I know I didn't aussee's
are having to deal with. According to science alert dot com,
an ancient breed flying arson ists akin to miniature dragons.
They're nicknamed firehawk raptors, indigenous birds that intend inationally spread
fire by wielding burning sticks in their talents and beaks.
(49:04):
What three different species listen, black kite, whistling kite, brown falcon.
These birds have been doing this for millennia, according to
geographers that spoke to National Geographic It's been known for
forty thousand years by Aboriginal people's. The intent is to
spread fire to unburned locations. The reason is to drive
potential prey towards the raptors by a wall of flames.
(49:26):
So basically what the gamemakers tried to do to the
tributes in the Hunger Games. From a nineteen sixty four
autobiography I found by an indigenous doctor, quote, I have
seen a hawk pick up a smoldering stick, stop it,
drop it in a fresh patch of grass half a
mile away, then wait with its mate for the mad
exodus of scorched and frightened rodents and reptiles. Researchers increasingly
(49:47):
believe these birds know exactly what they're doing. But in
the process, they're setting huge brush fires, huge fires in Australia,
fires that could harm humans or destroy large areas. This
seems like an inefficient way to catch an animal. I'm
not an expert on bird thought processes, obviously, but this
(50:08):
doesn't seem like a very positive biological creation to allow
birds to create fires so they can easier catch animals. Right, Like,
you get one bird, but you I mean one like rabbit,
but you burn like hundreds of acres of otherwise not
burned farmland or whatever. That seems like a bad, bad deal.
(50:31):
But it does seem like a bad deal. I imagine
if they're big enough fires, you're driving a lot of
prey for a lot of different birds. That's the thing
they're all like seeing there waiting together. Maybe this is
just the best idea that these particular species have come
up with. Did you guys see the pictures of the
alligators in the frozen lake in North Carolina? Have you
(50:51):
guys seen this? You need If you haven't seen this,
I mean, I ever, not just you guys who were
on the show with me, but everybody out there who
is listening, right now you need to get out your
phone and google alligators and then like ice ice like
in this is crazy in North Carolina. It's been so cold.
It's been so cold all over the South in particular,
and all over the country in general, but the South
(51:13):
in particular. That these alligators live in North Carolina, like
southern North Carolina, and the ponds that they are in
have frozen, and so the alligators, to avoid dying underneath
the water, have poked their snouts out of the ice
to allow them to continue to breathe while they go
(51:34):
into this catatonic state. Have you seen this story to unbelieve?
I saw one photo of it. I guess maybe they
heard something about the iguanas well. It's it explains how
the alligators have managed to survive since the dinosaur days.
But this is like they know when the water is
about to freeze, and they poke their snouts out of
(51:55):
the water to ensure that they're not frozen underneath the
water unable to breathe, and then they just go into
like a catatonic state so that because they're cold blooded,
they don't have to worry about the fact that it's
so frigid. It is unbelievable story. I mean, you need
to go check it out. You need to see this picture.
Maybe one of us all tweeted out. I tweeted it
(52:15):
out yesterday. I think, um, it's crazy.
This is the best of I'll kick the coverage with
Clay Travis on Fox Sports Radio. We're a couple of
days away now from the Divisional Round kickoff in the
n f L, and we're gonna start to break down
those games in a substantial fashion for you, giving you
a roadmap for where we're headed here on Thursday. I
(00:22):
first of all, hope you're having a fantastic Thursday morning
out there getting ready for the weekend. In our two,
we'll talk with my guy Alex Marvez and kind of
really get you rolling in terms of what he sees
in these four Divisional Round playoff games. In our three,
we will talk with my guy Todd Ferman out in
(00:43):
Vegas up early in the desert and discuss how you
can make some money betting on these four games. Um
Our one, I wanted to really kind of focus on
something that I find to be utterly intriguing and especially
off the jump. That is is the NFL playoff ratings
in the wild card absolutely tanked. We talked a little
(01:07):
bit about this on Tuesday, I believe it was after
the NFL after the college football playoff game, but I
went back in and looked at this in the context
of the college football playoff rankings, which came out on
Tuesday kind of late in the morning, and we kind
of started to get a picture for how many people
(01:29):
watched Alabama Georgia. And so I want to hit on
these two things and get your ideas on these, bringing
the crew and everybody else, but I want to start
with this. We talked a bit about the fact that
the NFL ratings were down nine point seven percent overall
in twenty seventeen. That is the course of the entire year,
(01:52):
the ratings dropped nearly ten percent, and that's after they
were down eight percent the year before. So in the
past two years years, the NFL ratings have dropped a
substantial amount eight percent in sixteen, nearly ten percent in ten.
Even more alarmingly for the NFL and its television partners.
(02:14):
And I wrote an article and came on here and
talked with you guys about the fact that the NFL
television partners, we're gonna lose approximately five hundred million dollars
that they had budgeted that they were going to make
across all of the different networks, whether it's NBC, CBS, Fox,
or Disney Slash, ABC, ESPN, that's big money that they
(02:38):
budgeted they were going to make that they're actually gonna
end up not making now off of the NFL. So
this is a big hit to the overall business community,
the collapse of the NFL. And at the same time,
usually the playoffs helped to revive things because there are
(02:58):
only four games in the wild car Card, and this
is pretty scary, I think for the NFL. The Wild
Card ratings for all four games that aired last weekend too,
on Saturday, two on Sunday fell and everybody out there
(03:18):
who's been making an argument on behalf of the NFL
has been like, well, it's a challenging environment. There's cord
cutting going on. Netflix continues to get more powerful, popular Hulu,
all these other different entertainment options exist that didn't exist,
and I'm like, really, in the last year it suddenly
has changed overnight. Those are the arguments the NFL made.
(03:41):
But then something interesting happened. On Monday night. We had
Alabama playing Georgia and a lot of you out there,
we're bitter and you're angry, and you hopped on social
media for a week leading up to this game. After
Georgia beat Oklahoma and after Alabama beat Clemson, and you said,
I'm not gonna watch I'm not gonna watch two SEC
(04:05):
teams play. This is a rig job. I'm gonna sit out.
The ratings are gonna be awful. Nobody's gonna care about
Alabama versus Georgia. You've got two Southern teams playing. And
by the way, you had four regional teams playing in
the playoff to begin with, because Oklahoma effectively a Southern team. Really,
(04:25):
I mean Oklahoma and Texas, and I think Oklahoma and
Texas and Clemson and Florida State are effectively shadow SEC teams.
What I mean by that is their programs are every
bit the equivalent of the Big SEC schools. They just
happened to play in the Big twelve and they happen
(04:45):
to play in the a SEC. If you were being
a hundred percent consistent in terms of the cultural fit,
Oklahoma and Texas and Clemson and Florida State would all
be in the SEC because they care their fay end
care about college football just like the SEC fans care
(05:06):
about college football. So it would make total sense to
have all those schools in the same conference. But it
was effectively a Southern uh kind of Playoff to begin with,
even though we had two SEC teams win and something
interesting happened. The ratings were up substantially on ESPN Cable
(05:29):
for the college Football playoff games, and then they were
up substantially for the College Football title game. Georgia and
Alabama ended up being the second most watched game in
the history of cable. Most watch game in the history
of cable was the first year the College Football Playoff,
(05:49):
when Ohio State played Oregon. Second most watched game is
Georgia against Alabama. So it got me thinking, wait a minute,
when you look at these to contradictory data sets, If
everybody out there is arguing, oh, the reason why the
NFL ratings are down is because chord cutting is getting
more difficult because of Netflix, because of Hulu, wait a minute,
(06:15):
why wouldn't that impact the College Football Playoff even more?
Considering that the College Football Playoff is on cable, so
every year fewer people have cable because their chord cutting.
In fact, ESPN is losing around ten thousand people a
day in many months that are leaving cable never to return.
(06:40):
Wouldn't ESPN be more impacted by chord cutting and Hulu
and Netflix and people watching out of the house and
all these things. Wouldn't that be more impactful in terms
of the audience. Yet, the college football playoff ratings were
up pretty substantially, nearly ten per cent more people watched
(07:02):
Alabama Georgia than watched Alabama Clemson. And Alabama Clemson. By
the way, it was a really good football game, right,
I mean, it went down to the wire and Clemson
scored on the final play of the game effectively to win,
and obviously Alabama Georgia went to overtime. But why is
college football up nearly ten while the NFL playoffs are
(07:27):
down nearly I think the answer that so many people
have been refusing to acknowledge is that the NFL brand
has been substantially tarnished by the decisions involved in the protest.
And I don't know why. I'm one of the few
people who's willing to talk about this. It's like everybody
(07:50):
else is coming up with other excuses for why the
ratings are down, and I just think it's staring us
right in the face. The NFL ratings, after surging for years,
dropped eight percent last year, and then they dropped almost
ten percent this year, and then college football. The playoff
(08:11):
is up substantially in ratings on ESPN, and the college
football title game is up nearly ten percent, while the
NFL playoff ratings are down nearly What other reason can
you come up with other than the protest as a
(08:31):
reason why this is happening now? I don't know exactly
what's going to happen in the divisional round of the playoffs.
I don't know what the ratings are gonna look like.
You got the Titans traveling to New England, you got
the Jags traveling to Pittsburgh, Saints going to the Vikings,
and the Falcons going to the Eagles. Are those matchups
(08:51):
gonna do better than last year's divisional round? Not? Based
on what we've seen so far this year? Do you
guys have good theories for why this could be happening
other than the protest? And also got me thinking the NBA,
whose ratings continue to go up, needs to go to
(09:13):
David Stern and give him a hundred million dollar bonus
for putting in place a rule that everybody stands for
the national anthem in the NBA, because I think if
they didn't have that rule and players were protesting, it
would have cost the league billions of dollars over the
(09:34):
past couple of years over the way that players would
have acted during the national anthem. As is, nobody in
the NBA has ever done anything other than stand for
the national anthem, and it hasn't ever been a story
at all. Meanwhile, in the NFL, this thing, ever since
Colin Kaepernick started, has been a disaster. Now. I think
(09:56):
football is under siege to a large extent for a
variety of issues, concussions, health of players, in general, officiating.
There are lots of reasons why the NFL I think
could be facing real difficulty. Maybe potentially two years ago
(10:17):
when the NFL ratings peaked, they just reached the absolute
apex and there's nowhere for them to go in terms
of getting bigger because the audiences have gotten so substantial.
But when I hear people say, well, this is just
the environment that we're facing. Network television ratings are down
in general, I come back and look at that discrepancy.
(10:41):
Why is college football and their playoff and their title
game surging? Why was the Alabama Georgia game, even if
it was too SEC teams, I think it's fair to
say that was not the best matchup that ESPN could
have ever gotten right. One answer as well, maybe the
matchup was just so great. No Alabama Georgia. A lot
(11:02):
of people were saying, I'm not gonna watch now. I
think those people were liars, and there was a great
deal of interest in Alabama and Georgia. And certainly your
average person out there doesn't think. I think Alabama Georgia
is a regional game, but Alabama Clemson was a national game.
I don't think that was the case. But it is
an interesting juxtaposition, an interesting dichotomy that college football ratings
(11:28):
surged this year while the NFL ratings are collapsing. And
when I look at it and I see the difference,
I say, Okay, look, I've made the argument for a
while college football is more entertaining than the NFL. That's
my personal opinion. But is there any other difference you
guys can see between why college football would have nearly
(11:50):
set an all time record this year and why the
NFL would be taking a thirteen percent drop in NFL
Division Play offer ratings following nearly a ten percent drop
year long, following an eight percent drop last year. They've
officially hit the panic button in the NFL, the league
(12:10):
television partners at NBCCBS, Fox and ABC, Slash, ESPN. They
are panicked. They are desperately trying to figure out what's
going on. I think the NFL needs to almost come
out and apologize to all of its fans for the
past two years of politicization. When it comes to the
(12:32):
way that politics and the NFL have become intertwined. I'm
not even kidding about that. I think that Roger Goodell
and the NFL owners and the NFL players need to
issue an official apology. And I talked about this after
Thanksgiving for those of you who missed it. I came
on after Thanksgiving and I said, guys, we've been taking
calls on this for a while. We've been at the
(12:53):
forefront of the NFL losing its base because people said,
you know what, I just I don't want to put
on the NFL and have to deal with the fact
that players are complaining about things in America. I just
don't want to do it. The NFL is my escape
from reality. I want to watch football for three hours
and I don't want to focus on whether guys are
(13:15):
upset about the national anthem or the president, or politics
or anything other than what are you gonna do on
third night? What defense you're gonna apply. I want that
to be my escape from the real world. And I
think the NFL blew it by getting political, and I
think the media that covers the NFL blew it by
getting political. And I think that this really got brought
(13:39):
home to me personally when I was down in Florida
for Thanksgiving and my father in law, who is uh,
grew up in Detroit. My wife is from Michigan, went
to the University of Michigan. Her family all lives in Michigan.
When we went to his house down in Florida to
for for Thanksgiving, I'm sitting around and it's been a
(14:03):
tradition in our family on Thanksgiving, like your family, to
watch the NFL, So we do want Thanksgiving put it on.
And it's been a tradition in my wife's family too.
In fact, we have gone to Detroit Lion games on
Thanksgiving before with him, and I noticed that the game
wasn't on, and I was curious. I don't remember who
(14:23):
the Lions are playing, um, but I said, hey, can
we put the Lions game on? Why is it? Why
is it not on? And he said, I've just been
so fed up with the NFL and politics and protesting
this year that I haven't watched the Lions at all.
I haven't put on the NFL this year. This guy
who's been watching the Lions for his entire life, and
(14:44):
certainly a guy who's been watching the Lions on Thanksgiving
for his entire life. And he's not a reactionary. He's
not some crazy political zealot. He's a very middle of
the road guy. He's an engineer. And he just said,
I decided I don't have time for it. I it's
not enjoyable for me to put on the NFL and
watch them talk about players protesting and politics and everything else.
(15:06):
I'll just spend my time elsewhere. And he hadn't watched
the Lions the entire year. That's directly in my family,
someone who made the decision that has watched the NFL
for generations on Thanksgiving and all season long, and I
had to tell him to put the teleput the game
on so I could watch it. I think that's becoming
(15:26):
a really big issue for the NFL. And I don't
know how the NFL resolves it. But when I see
the NFL down in its playoffs the same time that
college football is up ten percent. It's not that people
have too many options and are not interested in sports
in the same way that they were before. It's that
the NFL hasn't lost a substantial portion of its viewership
(15:51):
by alienating its fans. What can it do to bring
them back? Be sure to catch live editions about kick
the Coverage with Clay Travis weekdays at six am Eastern
three am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I
Heart Radio app. NFL Divisional Round Playoffs Sension Closer and Closer.
Two days from now, we get the first game kicking off.
We're gonna talk with Alex Marvez here in the next
(16:12):
segment about all these games. But we started off the
show and we continue to to unpack here what I
think is a big story, and it is the NFL
Wild Card weekend games being down on average, all four
of them being down double digits. So it's not as
if one game just dragged the entire crew down. All
(16:34):
four of the wild card game ratings were down double digits.
And uh, we have the college football playoff, which happened
on New Year's Day as well as on this past Monday.
We were obviously down in the Atlanta for that game,
and the ratings for that game surged over last year.
(16:55):
So the question that I'm asking is, it's one thing
if people just want to say, oh, the reason and
why the NFL ratings are down is because television viewing
habits have changed. It's because television and in general is
under siege because people have a lot more options. They're
watching on demand, they're watching Netflix, they're watching Hulu, they're
watching television in different ways, they're watching on their phones,
(17:18):
all these different explanations, But my question is pretty straightforward.
It's okay if those same situations occur for both college
and the NFL, why would college be up double digits
and the NFL be down double digits? Particularly when the
college games are on cable. So in theory, it's harder
(17:40):
to watch games on cable than it is basic network television.
So if cord cutting was gonna be a thing and
people were watching television less, wouldn't ESPN have been more
impacted by that than the NFL was? And look, a
lot of the wild card games were pretty dag gone competitive.
It's not like we got a ton of forty two
to three games in the wild card weekend that just passed.
(18:03):
Titan Chiefs went down to the wire, Panther Saints down
to the wire. Uh, certainly it wasn't a great game,
but Bill's Jacks went down to the absolute wire, and
even the Rams and the Falcons game was pretty entertaining
down the stretch. It wasn't like it was a blowout game.
It was very competitive as well. So you got four
(18:25):
pretty competitive games in the NFL wild Card maybe maybe
a little bit more understandable. And you had again a
lot of big markets. Atlanta against l A that's a
pretty good game. Uh, two big time quarterbacks in Cam
Newton and in Drew Brees going head to head. Uh,
you got Bills in the playoffs for the first time
in twenty years. Basically, a lot of pretty good, sexy storylines,
(18:47):
lots of teams that hadn't been in the playoffs for
a while that would have produced a lot of interest
in those markets in Jacksonville and in Nashville. So I
just I don't buy into the fact that everything else
is working flawlessly for the NFL and somehow this is
just a larger scale issues they're facing. And what I
have been saying I'm one of the few people who's
(19:08):
been on this guy's because everybody else out there in
television has been making excuses. They've been saying, oh, well,
it was the election, Oh well it was the cord
cutting and the challenges that television is facing in general.
And what I've been telling you, guys is what I've
been hearing from people in the middle part of the country.
Not people in New York and l A so much,
(19:29):
but the middle part of the country, the base, the
backbone of football fandom, the middle part of the country.
A lot of people saying, I'm just not gonna watch
the local I mean, I watched maybe my local team,
but I'm not gonna watch the national games. And so
everything is down substantially. And this comes on the heels
of every game being down substantially. I pulled this from
(19:54):
the New York Times, sorry, the Wall Street Journal recently,
and I looked at this and I said, in this
ain't good for the NFL, and I sent out this link.
This was in the Wall Street Journal, I believe, Friday edition. UM,
Monday Night Football down six percent for the year. Fox
Sunday Afternoons down nine percent. NBC. This is regular season
(20:16):
down eleven percent, CBS down eleven percent, and Thursday Night
Football down twelve percent. Every NFL game and sequence was
down substantially. And I wrote about this on in my
website out Kick. But it was gonna miss revenue. The
expectation was NFL television partners, We're gonna miss revenue by
(20:38):
five hundred million bucks. The NFL with NBC, CBS, Fox
and Disney slash ESPN, slash ABC, those networks were gonna
miss their budget by over five hundred million dollars because
people were not watching. So I would love to know it.
What would you guys do to s all of this
(21:00):
issue the NFL? If you were a business, let's just
take it away from the NFL. If you were a business,
a lot of you driving into work this morning. If
you work at a for profit business in the NFL,
teams are for profit businesses and your revenue was down
in the past two years, it would be in all
hands on deck meeting and everybody would be sitting around
(21:22):
the table and you'd be like, what's happened with our product?
If you sold chocolate bars and your chocolate bar sales
had just declined in the past two years, you would
be would be an oh crap moment. It doesn't matter
what you sell. If you were a bank and your
deposits had declined in two years, you'd be like, oh,
(21:43):
what are we doing wrong? Why are we losing everybody?
If you're a retail store and your revenue dropped over
the past two years, no, no no matter what you sell,
you'd be like, we gotta change something. We gotta figure
out what's going on here. We're gonna go out of business.
What would you do? Does Roger Goodell in this offseason say,
we need to make a drastic change, We need to apologize,
(22:06):
We need to go back and change the rule and
make everybody stand for the national anthem? Does he hope
this just vanishes and just disappears. I don't. I don't
know what the easy answer is. I do know this.
If you're down in two years, that's trouble. If they
came to me on on my show and they said, hey,
(22:27):
since we hired you, Clay Travis, your ratings have dropped
in this time slot, you know what would happen. I
would get fired. That's zero doubt. They would come to
me and they would say, hey, I don't know what
you're doing but it ain't Workin in the two years
that you've been on the air, your ratings have dropped.
Less people are listening to you than when you started.
(22:48):
I'd get fired right here, and I'm not lying my
contracts up at the end of June. They'd be like,
We're gonna go find somebody else, and I'd be like,
I totally understand it. My job is to bring people
in and instead I've run people off. Something I'm doing
not working. By the way, we're surging in ratings, thank
you for that. But if I understand that, I'm in
the ratings business just like the NFL is, I'm in
(23:10):
the business of making as many people listen for as
long as possible, just like the NFL's in the business
of making as many people watch football for as long
as possible. That's how they make their money. And ultimately,
I don't know if the players understand that, but that's
how the players get paid. Ultimately, when they're protesting and
knocking ratings down twent for their league, they're taking money
(23:31):
out of their own pocket. I don't know. The problem
I think in general is lots of people who are
employees don't understand how they get their paychecks. I always
say this, if you want to make more money, figure
out how you get paid, because if you can make
your boss more money, he's gonna probably pay you more money.
(23:53):
A lot of people just want to be employees. They
don't want to focus on what they need to do
to make more money. They want to just focus on
the fact that their paycheck continues to come in. They
don't want to think about what can I do better
to make my company more successful. They don't really take
that next step. And I think a lot of NFL
players did that too. I think they weren't really thinking
(24:16):
about who pays their salary. If you are an NFL player,
guess where your money comes from. Fans, period, and so
if the fans aren't happy, that's on you. Ultimately, your
job is to make the fans happy. You're an entertainer,
and if you're not entertaining and keeping them happy, then
(24:37):
it's on you. I used as an example, uh, the
Dixie Chicks. Remember when the Dixie Chicks went out there
and insulted George W. Bush while they were overseas in England,
and then all of a sudden, they were like, holy crap,
our fan base revolted on us. It wasn't just what
the Dixie Chicks said, because if Madonna said it, nobody
(24:59):
would have cared. If Jay Z said that, nobody would
have cared. It was that when the Dixie Chicks insulted
George W. Bush, they were insulting their very base, the
people who made their paid their salaries, bought their music,
went to their concerts. You can say they had First
Amendment rights, all that is true, but if you alienate
(25:19):
your base, you ain't gonna be around very long in
the entertainment industry. And what the Dixie Chicks did, I
think is similar to what the NFL players have done.
They've alienated their base, all the people in the middle
part of the country who love football, everybody in Texas.
That's why Jerry Jones, I think, was so aggressive. Jerry
(25:40):
Jones in Texas he sees what's happening to the Cowboys.
The Cowboys are as close to Americana as you can get.
It's like mom apple Pie, Dallas Cowboys. Jerry Jones a
dumb He didn't become a multi billionaire because he's bad
at figuring out what people want. He looked around, he said,
my god, this protest is alienating a huge portion of
(26:02):
the Dallas Cowboy fan base. My mom just texted me, said,
your uncle refuses to watch the NFL other than the
local team, And I think that's what a lot of
people have done. You'll like your local team enough that
you'll watch them, but you're not gonna watch Monday night football.
You're not gonna watch Thursday night football. You may not
watch the NFL playoffs if it doesn't involve your local team.
(26:25):
I think that starts to explain it. That's been my
theory for a while that the last thing fans would
give up would be their local team. The first thing
they would give up would be the national games. Jason Martin,
if I if you if Roger Goodell came to you
and he said, this is a crisis, we're down. What
do we need to do? What would you tell him?
Have the players stay in the locker room until after
(26:47):
the national anthem? That's football? Does? I think I don't
making people stand? To me, I guess I just disagree.
Like personally, I want people to stand for the national anthem,
but I don't like the idea of forcing people to
do it. I think staying in the locker room I
don't help. I just I can't. I don't. They force
them to stand up in the NBA and it's not
(27:07):
a story at all. I think that's wrong too. It's
not a story. I mean people, I just it's really
weird to me. It's a slippery slope. I don't like
mandating things like that. I think if you just have
them stay in the locker room, I think that's a bad. Yeah,
but that's that first of all, they'll know now you
for something you might not agree with. People do that
(27:29):
all the time. Jason Martin, you have to wear a
uniform that doesn't have like the totally just I just
don't agree with you. I am totally patriotic and believe
that you should stand for the national anthem. I also
believe that we're in a country that actually believes in
the idea that if you don't necessarily want to stand
for the national anthem, you shouldn't necessarily have to personally,
(27:52):
you should as part of the job. You cannot do
the job like this. This is crazy to me. Like
if you are a FedEx driver and you're a huge
Donald Trump's reporter and you want to wear a makeup
Erica Great hat again instead of your FedEx normal hat
or whatever you wear. You can't do that as part
of the job. If you are a McDonald's cashier and
you're selling Big Max all day, you can't wear a
(28:14):
Hillary Clinton button on your McDonald's uniform. Do you know why?
Because when you agree to be an employee, you give
up some of your rights. They pay you to give
up things that, but they're not paying you to stand
for the national anthem at FedEx. They're not paying you
to stand for the national anthem at Walmart. That's not
part of your gig. It could sign a contract, what's
(28:35):
part of your contract and said, by the way, you
also have to stand for the national anthem where you
can't play in the end. I think that's insane. Though
why I just think it's insane. If it just keep
them in the locker room, I don't care. Like, if
I want to believe that everybody would stand for the
national anthem, it's if it's the fact that bus there
are college players that did that would not stand for
the national anthem. If they were forced to be out there,
they've him to play. Like, I don't understand how this
(28:58):
is remotely controversial. Every single person who sells their labor,
is giving up some of their freedom in exchange for money.
That's like par for the course. You are choosing. Every
single person who's driving into work today right now is
choosing to sell their time in exchange for labor. And
as part of selling their time for labor, they are
(29:21):
giving up the right to do other things like That's
literally the very basis of being paid for a job.
The reason why I'm up right now talking on the
radio is not because I want to do it for free.
The reason why you're working as a producer is not
because you want to do it for free, or Danny
g or or justin doing to do it for free.
If our ratings were down and I found out that
(29:42):
our ratings would go up again if we played the
national anthem before this show started, I would make every
single employee that works on this show stand up for
the national anthem, and we put the damn thing on
Periscope and Facebook. If it were gonna make a difference,
give you garant, damn tee it, and I would fire
anybody who wouldn't do it. And I don't think that's
a bad move. If I told you right now, you're
(30:04):
your salary is going to be increased by if we've
played the national anthem to start this show and you
had to stand up, and we had to put it
on Periscope and Facebook, and I guarantee you that our
ratings were gonna be up, you wouldn't do it. Well,
you're asking the wrong person in my case, because I
would have stood anyway, because I believe in a national anthem.
(30:25):
I'm just suggesting. I'm just suggesting that if that, if
there's nobody out there actively standing up in front of me,
I don't care about Okay, that's that that doesn't matter.
That clearly doesn't matter to you, but it's mattering for
the viewership. That's fine to me. That that you should
just take them and just be like, all right, well
you're still gonna do this because it's a business. It's like,
(30:45):
do you care about the patriotism or do you do
you just simply care about the money? Oh? I care.
I care about the money. But but it's the equivalent
of interviewing a black candidate for the Oakland Raiders. It's
like Team Martin and not having any chance for that
guy to get the job. It's the same gig. You
don't even care if they're standing. You just want to
make sure that people are watching the games the room.
(31:06):
Who cares. I'm a business I'm a same thing. Don't
invite them to the White House. Don't invite anybody to
the White House because I don't care what their political stances.
If they want to do that on their own, harm
their brands. Jason, you gotta take a step back. You're
answering this for yourself. You're not thinking myself. You're not
thinking like a business owner. Alright, so it's a business owner.
(31:27):
I'm gonna force people to go against Look the the
guy that called up, the army lieutenant that called up
and said that it made him sick that that these
people would think that they have the right to kneel
while people are dying on the battlefield. Unfortunately, they're dying
on the battlefield for the right for people to Again,
it's not a bad it is a bad argument. The
argument here is your business is down. I come to
(31:49):
you and say how do you solve it? You say,
don't come out for the national anthem. That's not going
to solve this issue. It's actually gonna make it worse. Now,
it's atoms a sham. If you don't want to do
stand up if you want to be employed as an
NFL player. To me, that's not very much to ask
that you might not agree with, might not like, might
(32:11):
not might have a problem with people think you don't
want If you have such an issue with the anthem
and pro and and the fact that you can't protest
in your uniform while you're at work, then you cannot
be employed. I don't understand why that's a difficult situation.
It's the exact same to me as somebody who is
in a uniform. Like, when you are in a uniform
(32:32):
representing a company, you don't have the right to protest
and share your political opinions in that uniform. I don't
understand how this is not something that everybody on earth
doesn't understand. At the most basic level, if you are
in a uniform representing a company, you don't have the
right to share your political beliefs with everyone that comes
(32:53):
into contact with you that day. Easy example, if you
are a Walmart cashier, you don't have the right to
cash somebody out at Walmart and say abortion is murder.
If that happened, every single person listening to us right
now would be like, yeah, Walmart should fire that employee.
If you showed up as a FedEx or a UPS
(33:14):
driver and when you delivered a package for Christmas this year,
you said, God blessed Donald Trump, Thank God he's making
America great again everybody, and you wore a MAGA hat
make America Great Again hat. Every single person would say, Yeah,
you don't deserve the right in your uniform to be
advocating on behalf of Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton or
(33:35):
any other political agenda. I don't understand how it's controversial
for an NFL team to say the exact same thing
to a player. If you want to advocate outside of
the time when you're wearing my uniform, then you have
the right to do it. Like on My Ship, No
Stop on my show, if Danny G came on and
(33:58):
he was like, Hey, today, I want to talk talk
about how much I love anime, I'd be like, we're
probably not gonna do that. And if when I went
to Danny G and I was like, hey, what do
you think about the Raiders and the decision to hire
John Gruden, he was like, Oh, I like the decision
to hire John Gruden, but let me talk to you
about this new anime film that I watched and how
much I love it, and if he consistently did it,
(34:19):
I'd be like, this dude can't be on the show
because he's not fulfilling the obligations of the job in
a in a good way. Like if you are showing
up and advocating politically for any cause when you are
in a uniform, then that and that is hurting my business,
then I'm gonna fire you. And I don't understand how
that's remotely controversial. And if you take it outside of sports,
(34:42):
I don't think there's a single person listening to us
right now who would say, yeah, when I go to
McDonald's and I order a big Mac, I want to
hear somebody who's taking my big mac order tell me
what they think about campaign finance reform and why they
need to be supporting my candidate, or the fact that
they believe that Bernie Sanders is right when he says
(35:04):
that the corporations are getting like you don't want to
hear just like, dude, I just want a big Mac,
Like I don't want to hear from you. Why you
think that the American global system capitalistic system is broken
and the rich people are getting too rich and the
poor people are getting too poor. Like I don't care.
I just want a big mac and and by the way,
my fries too. I don't want any politics from you
(35:24):
when I'm ordering something at McDonald's. And I think it's
simply true as well that when people watch football, they're like,
I want to watch football. I don't want any politics
at all. This is my escape from real life. And
if you are doing that and you are hurting my brand,
then I'm gonna fire you. And I don't understand how
that's even remotely controversial. I think that's the very basis
(35:46):
of American capitalism. Like you serve the customer, and if
the customer is not happy, then I'm gonna find somebody
who can make the customer happy. Like I just I
don't understand. Like so you say, oh, it's a sham.
If somebody's signs stands up, I don't really care about
what their motivation is or what whether they agree with it.
I care that they are they're standing, and that they're
(36:09):
not hurting my business. So your so you can have
a political opinion say that they need to stand up,
but they don't have the right to then have the
political opinion on their own side because political locker room,
so that we don't ever see their opinion one way
or the other, and they're not forced to take I
don't keep standing up for the national anthem is a
strong political opinion. And moreover, I don't think that it's No,
(36:33):
it's not true at all. That's not true at all.
Standing for the national anthem is a basic sign of respect.
It doesn't mean that you're standing for the national anthem
and like, oh, I'm a Democrat and I'm standing for
the national anthem, and oh, I'm a Republican. Standing for
the national anthem doesn't tell me anything at all about
your internal politics. Moreover, it doesn't in any way also
(36:55):
mean that you don't have the right any time else,
any time other than the three hours a day when
you are in your uniform being paid by my team
to play a game. You can have any opinion that
you want. You can't even have any opinion that you
want in a press conference right after the game. You
can even have any opinion that you want in a
(37:15):
press conference after practice. But when you are in my
uniform on the field, being paid to play football, you
do what I asked, Just like the NBA, like, the
NBA is so smart, they should go give a hundred
million dollars extra to David Stern and they should say,
God bless you, David Stern. You were a genius. We
(37:35):
dodged completely all of this disaster because if the NBA
was kneeling, if guys were kneeling in the NBA right now,
it would cost the NBA. It would have cost the
NBA and the television partners billions of dollars over the
past couple of years. It would kill the NBA if
they were kneeling during the national anthem. And David Stern
was smart enough to know this. He put in place
(37:56):
a rule that everybody had to stand for the national anthem.
You know what hasn't happen, and nobody's even out there saying, hey,
how come the NBA makes its players stand for the
national anthem? How come the NBA has to do this?
How come the NBA players have to fake patriotism? How
can they have to sham patriotism? Nobody's even asking because
it's a basic rule that was already in place, and
nobody in the NBA has stood up to it. And
(38:18):
in the NFL they didn't have the rule and as
a result, their business is tanking down twenty in the
past two years. That is pushed the panic button. We
are in serious trouble. That ain't good, that is problematic,
and how do you fix it? I don't know. Be
sure to catch live editions of I Would Kick the
coverage with Clay Travis weekdays at six am Eastern three
(38:40):
am Pacific. Alex Marvez is the panic button? Time to
be popped? Here down? Now that the NFL wild card
ratings were down, even though college football was up ten percent,
I find that juxtaposition really fascinating. Would that scare you
if you're the NFL? Yeah, I think it should. I
mean clearly because advertisers, at some point we're going to say,
what are we paying for? Should we shift our advertising
(39:01):
dollars elsewhere to a hotter product? Now, as you know,
the decay of network television as part of this as well.
But no, there there, and listen, the matchups weren't that
great in NFL games. There are some things that are
inherently wrong with the NFL right now. The officiating is
something that just comes up week after week. I think
people are getting tired of it. And let's be honest, here,
who wants to watch Tennessee, Kansas City? Who wants to
(39:22):
watch Jacksonville Buffalo? These aren't marquee games Carolina New Orleans
is really more of a their national teams that they're
not national teams, you know what I mean, They're just
not These aren't big draws. I think the real reason
to panic maybe if the big teams that play this weekend,
you know you're talking for the big markets, Philadelphia, you're
talking you know, New England, you're talking Pittsburgh, those types
(39:42):
of things, if they can't draw any traction, then I think, yeah,
I mean you will see how much the declinings because
I expected to decline as people continue to cut the
cord and maybe watch games digitally or not watch at all.
But you're right, it is it should be a concern
for the NFL which game is best if you could
only pick one to watch this weekend. You know, call
me a glutton for punishment. Titans and Patriots, I think
(40:03):
we're gonna see a better game at least early on
then what people think. Of course, Look, two things have
to happen. Number one, the Titans have to come up
with a plan to cover the tight end something that
didn't happen until Travis Kelsey n out with a concussion. Yeah,
I know, I know, it's it's it's crazy. You know
that Tom Brady six and two career record against Dick Lebo.
They've always found ways to attack his defense and be
successful at it. And of course to the if you know,
(40:24):
if the Patriots take away that one thing as we
always talk about, and of course it's going to be
Derrick Henry that they try to take away, can Marcus
Mario to make a few plays in the passing game.
But this is a healthy Tennessee team and it's just
a nasty brand of football, you know what I mean.
It's just it's just the type of thing that usually
keeps you around in games and you end up beating
up the other team pretty good. So I think the
Titans could make some hay as far as the pass
(40:45):
rush goes. And you know the key is going to
be too getting Tom Brady off his spot, make him
move around a little bit, because that Achilles Tenant is
still sore even though he's off the injury report. But
the Falcons Eagles, are you buying into the idea that
the Atlanta has now moved to a three point road favorite.
Are you buying into the idea that the Falcons are
going to go on the road knock off the Eagles. No,
I'm not, actually, and I think it's you know what,
(41:07):
it sounds too good to be true, right, you know,
Falcons on the road being the favorites. I think the
Eagles played the disrespect card pretty well. I think Nick
Foles will be better than what it is that we've
been seeing. They've had a lot of time to try
to prepare for this. Put in plays that Nick Foles
run runs well. I don't think they exposed any of
that against the Dallas Cowboys, and I think they even
took the pedal off the meadow a little bit when
it came to the Oakland Raiders. So I expect a
(41:27):
better team. I expect. You know. The interesting thing, too,
is how are the weather conditions going to affect this one?
From what I understand play And I'm not a meteorologist,
but from what I understand, there could be steady wins
eighteen miles an hour, guss up to thirty one miles
an hour that could rec havoc in the passing game,
recavoc on special teams other games, on Sunday, Jack steel
or Saints of Vikings. What jumps out to you about
(41:48):
these two games? Jack Steelers, Well, Blake Bortles, is this
the end? You know? The Jacks have a decision to
make this offseason nineteen million dollar salary for Blake bortlesen.
I get it, he's not really worth nineteen million dollars.
But that being said, do you have another option? Can
you get can you get a veteran quarterback? Can you
swing that deal? I don't think you're going in the
(42:08):
draft because this is a team that's ready to win now.
So this is a huge game for Blake Bortles. I
just think that that second time around, the Steelers aren't
gonna aren't gonna get caught there. As for New Orleans
and Minnesota, Listen, the Saints have a great offense obviously
number two in the NFL during the regular season and yards,
but this Vikings defense is special and I don't expect
case Keenom to turn back into a pumpkin. I think
the Vikings win and then taken on the road to Philly.
(42:31):
Interesting question here. Marcus Mariotta obviously gets the road playoff
win against the Kansas City Chiefs, I think that for him,
in particular, this game against the Patriots is almost entirely
a big time slingshot game in a positive direction. In
other words, that the Titans go out and they lose
thirty five to ten, I think most people are gonna say, yeah,
(42:51):
that's kind of exactly what I anticipated to see happen.
But going up against Tom Brady, going up against the Patriots,
if Mariotta came out and had a big game, how
much could this mean for him? It's huge because it
continues to build confidence. But as I reported here before, Clay,
you know, I really expect changes on this Titans coaching staff.
I'm not sure if Terry Robiski sticks around. I think
(43:12):
they'll be changes other positions on staff. I expect some
tweeks to be made to try to help Marcus Mariotta
get back on on the real big arc that he
seemed to be on his first two seasons. Let's be honest,
his Titan's offense really was stagnant, you know, I mean,
and it was stagnant in the first half of Who's
out there that they could get? I'm sorry, who's out
there that they could get? I agree with you that
(43:32):
they probably are going to have to remake the offense
that Terry Robiski could potentially be gone. What names are
you hearing? Like? What? What? Who would they even look
at potentially to remake the offense? Well, listen, I'd be
speculating here, but I have to look at who Mike
Malarkey has ties to right in the past, as Mike
Schuler that comes in works with them potentially as a
quarterbacks coach. If Mike doesn't get an offensive coordinator job,
you have Daryl Bevil. Now he's been released, you know
(43:53):
from his responsibilities at Seattle, so Seahawk's offensive coordinator. In
other words, he was fired. So you know, we will
see if Bevil is out there, and you know, again,
if it's a quarterbacks coach situation, that's one thing. I
just don't know how much Mike Malarkey wants to truly
change his offense. And listen to this, last week's win,
it kept Mike mclarkey's job. If the Titans win on Saturday,
they may decide, Listen, we'll go with his staff. Maybe
(44:15):
no changes are needed, Maybe these are the right guy
guys for the job. But for right now, Malarkey, we
know he's safe. I'm just not sure about some others
on his staff. So is it would you pick the
Titans as the I mean, the Titans are nearly a
two touchdown underdog. If I told you you had to
pick an underdog, and it sounds like you want to
go with the Eagles, So I'm not really going to
count the Eagles as an underdog. But if I told
you you had to take Titans, you had to take
(44:37):
the Jags, or you had to take the Saints. Are
you really telling me you take the Titans as the
team that's potentially is an underdog. They're most likely to
pull off the upset. I'd take it for the points.
I mean, that's what we're talking about. I'd take it
in the first half and they you know, the problem
is this, if they get into one of these games,
see and I say this, they came down from three, right,
but trying to match firepower with the Patriots, realistically, it's
(44:59):
just not going happen. I think they can stick close.
I think New England ultimately pulls away. If there's going
to be an upset, I think it would be New
Orleans against Minnesota. But gosh, this Saints team is so
beat up to. I mean, Andrew's Pete being out as
huge because his Vikings defensive line is so good. Andrews
Pete the tenth different starter out for the New Orleans
Saints this season. It really makes what they've accomplished even
more remarkable. You've lost basically half your starting lineup during
(45:22):
the regular season, and yet now you've made it to
the second round of the playoffs. They deserve a lot
of props for that. Brady in his last five game
has six touchdowns, but he also has five interceptions. Is
there a reason to worry if you're a Patriots fan
entering into the playoffs based on the way he's finished
the season? It's it's not as efficient and pretty as
it should be. But then again, he's not, you know,
dealing with a full deck of cards in a lot
(45:42):
of ways. You've got Rob Gronkowski, You've got Brandon Cooks,
and then you don't got much more than that. And
now you know, you see Rex Burkhead. He's probably not
going to be able to go. Mike Gillislee is limited.
I mean, you have Dion Lewis, James White was out
at the end of the season. I'm not making excuses.
I mean, I think that the problem that you have
with with the Patriots, and I really think the Titans
could take advantage of this, is their offensive line. I
think that they've been you know, Tom Brady has been
(46:03):
pressured more this season than he's been in the past.
You know, clearly if he has Julian Edelman, I think
it's a different story as far as two guys being
on the same page. But I think that's that's where
we're at with Brady. I don't see the beginning of
the end. It's just not as beautiful as as it's
been in the past. And that also speaks to Tom Brad.
I mean, we're talking Tom Brady. You know, maybe Carson
Wentz gets the MVP, maybe Todd Gurley, but Tom Brady,
(46:24):
We're still talking about one of the best three players
in football, if not the guy who ultimately wins the award.
So if that's the case with the panic mode on
Tom Brady, I think I'll take it. Outstanding stuff is
always so in general, if we get Steelers Patriots, and
let's say that all the favorites win and we get
Vikings Eagles, although that would obviously be an underdog winning
in the Eagles what's your Super Bowl pick at this
(46:45):
point in time with these eight teams remaining, it would
be New England in Minnesota. The Vikings defense is just special. Plus,
you know, I wanted to see that Super Bowl matchup
because the Vikings actually have the Gronk stopper. They have
Harrison Smith. This guy is ridiculous. He is He might
be the best safety in football, and he can cover
Gronkowski and that's going to force the Patriots to do
some different things. I just I feel like this might
be the year finally that curse of the Vikings. Four
(47:08):
previous Super Bowl appearances play no victories. They've always found
a way to choke it in NFC championship games or
at least lose. Whether it's it's you know, Anderson missing
that field goal, Gary Anderson. Gary Anderson missed the field
goal after being perfect all season back in the season,
whether it's a bounty gate game that took place down there.
I mean, there's been so many things that have gone
(47:28):
on through the years, Darren Nelson dropping a pass in
eighty seven, all those things. I think they're finally going
to get past it. I really think the Vikings are
gonna get there We'll talk to you next week and
we'll have it down to final four. Appreciate your time
and man splendid Clay, thank you so much. Fox Sports
Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Catch all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot
com and within the I Heart Radio apps. Ladies and gentlemen,
(47:57):
I'm just glad I was staring boys and good I
thought he thought I was like this enormous piece of chicken.
D times I had a volstrictor such my space. This
is Animal Thunderdog. Well, you know, if you happen to
be a human, there is some craziness going on. Jason Martin,
(48:21):
what you got, Clay? This credit first goes to Ben Shyvy,
who emailed me this. I think it was yesterday, may
have been two days ago. You can email me at
j Mark Clone at gmail dot com. You can hit
Clay dot Travis at gmail dot com if you want
to send us Animal Thunderdome stories. We don't see at all,
but this is a really interesting story. There's a brutal
heat wave currently happening in Australia. Temperature records being shattered
(48:41):
left and right, which often means major fires, but I'll
bet you didn't know this. I know I didn't aussee's
are having to deal with. According to science alert dot com,
an ancient breed flying arson ists akin to miniature dragons.
They're nicknamed firehawk raptors, indigenous birds that intend inationally spread
fire by wielding burning sticks in their talents and beaks.
(49:04):
What three different species listen, black kite, whistling kite, brown falcon.
These birds have been doing this for millennia, according to
geographers that spoke to National Geographic It's been known for
forty thousand years by Aboriginal people's. The intent is to
spread fire to unburned locations. The reason is to drive
potential prey towards the raptors by a wall of flames.
(49:26):
So basically what the gamemakers tried to do to the
tributes in the Hunger Games. From a nineteen sixty four
autobiography I found by an indigenous doctor, quote, I have
seen a hawk pick up a smoldering stick, stop it,
drop it in a fresh patch of grass half a
mile away, then wait with its mate for the mad
exodus of scorched and frightened rodents and reptiles. Researchers increasingly
(49:47):
believe these birds know exactly what they're doing. But in
the process, they're setting huge brush fires, huge fires in Australia,
fires that could harm humans or destroy large areas. This
seems like an inefficient way to catch an animal. I'm
not an expert on bird thought processes, obviously, but this
(50:08):
doesn't seem like a very positive biological creation to allow
birds to create fires so they can easier catch animals. Right, Like,
you get one bird, but you I mean one like rabbit,
but you burn like hundreds of acres of otherwise not
burned farmland or whatever. That seems like a bad, bad deal.
(50:31):
But it does seem like a bad deal. I imagine
if they're big enough fires, you're driving a lot of
prey for a lot of different birds. That's the thing
they're all like seeing there waiting together. Maybe this is
just the best idea that these particular species have come
up with. Did you guys see the pictures of the
alligators in the frozen lake in North Carolina? Have you
(50:51):
guys seen this? You need If you haven't seen this,
I mean, I ever, not just you guys who were
on the show with me, but everybody out there who
is listening, right now you need to get out your
phone and google alligators and then like ice ice like
in this is crazy in North Carolina. It's been so cold.
It's been so cold all over the South in particular,
and all over the country in general, but the South
(51:13):
in particular. That these alligators live in North Carolina, like
southern North Carolina, and the ponds that they are in
have frozen, and so the alligators, to avoid dying underneath
the water, have poked their snouts out of the ice
to allow them to continue to breathe while they go
(51:34):
into this catatonic state. Have you seen this story to unbelieve?
I saw one photo of it. I guess maybe they
heard something about the iguanas well. It's it explains how
the alligators have managed to survive since the dinosaur days.
But this is like they know when the water is
about to freeze, and they poke their snouts out of
(51:55):
the water to ensure that they're not frozen underneath the
water unable to breathe, and then they just go into
like a catatonic state so that because they're cold blooded,
they don't have to worry about the fact that it's
so frigid. It is unbelievable story. I mean, you need
to go check it out. You need to see this picture.
Maybe one of us all tweeted out. I tweeted it
(52:15):
out yesterday. I think, um, it's crazy.
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